Flat Terminal for Guideway Transit System

ABSTRACT

A flat terminal for a guideway transit system is provided. The flat terminal comprises a gateway  24  connected to a guideway  20  through which a vehicle  10  moves, and through which the vehicle is driven in and out to enter/alight passengers, entering/alighting platforms  30  at which the vehicle stops at the gateway  24  to enter/alight the passengers or freights, and a waiting room  42  provided on the same plane as the entering/alighting platforms  30.  Therefore, it is possible to install a single story structure terminal, rather than a two-story structure terminal, and install the gateway or the entering/alighting platforms at the exterior of the building since a movement of the vehicle does not overlap a passageway of the passengers.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a flat terminal for a guideway transit system, and more particularly, to a flat terminal for guideway transit system capable of building a single floored flat terminal, installing a gateway, an entering/alighting platform or the like in the exterior as well as the interior of the building, simplifying a structure for changing direction of vehicles to remarkably reduce the entire terminal size, and establishing a large scale of terminal in the same manner at an appropriate place.

BACKGROUND ART

Generally, since a current public transit system serviced on the basis of an on-time system such as a general subway or a light-rail transit, etc. causes traffic congestion in vehicles or stations and is operated in such a manner as to stop at every stations, there has been a problem in that it takes much time to move from one place to another.

In order to solve such a problem, the applicant of the present invention has proposed the Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0250021 titled “Personal Rapid Transit System using Course Reservation and Branch Stop Technologies”, which has also been registered as U.S. Pat. No. 6,318,274, entitled “Guideway Transit System”. Then, the transit system is improved to change a progression direction of vehicles at a U-turn section to a one-way traffic, as disclosed in the Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0472225 entitled “Terminal for guideway transit system”.

As mentioned above, the guideway transit system filed by the applicant comprises a guideway installed in the air or the underground, or on the ground. The guideway includes a main lane guideway where vehicles is driven toward the destination at a high speed without stop and are very frequently driven, and a plurality of low speed branch guideways branched out from the main lane guideway. Each branch guideway has a terminal installed at its terminated end. The terminal basically includes a gateway through which a vehicle is driven in and out, an entering/alighting platform for entering or alighting passengers, freights or the like, and terminal subsidiary facilities such as a waiting room, a parking lot, a vehicle maintenance shop, a vehicle wash, a controller for controlling movement of vehicle, a ticket gate, and so on.

Meanwhile, the guideway is a tunnel shape of exclusive lane through which a vehicle can be safely driven at a high speed, and connects between a departure terminal and a destination terminal for its direct driving. In addition, the branch guideways connect the terminals to the main lane guideway. While the vehicle is basically driven in an automatic manner under the control of a computer, a skilled driver should manually drive the vehicle prior to completely realizing the automatic driving. Moreover, during also the manual driving, the vehicle is systematically driven by a detection of a sensor, communication, various signals, calculation and control by a computer, a lane schedule, lane priority regulations, safety lane regulations, visual recognition and so on, without any accident.

[Disclosure] [Technical Problem]

However, since the terminals have a structure that the guideway of the vehicle overlaps a passageway for passengers inside thereof, a two-story structure terminal, in which the vehicles and passengers are divided into upstairs and downstairs and passed, was installed, thereby making the size of the terminal large. In addition, such terminals should provide with a gateway, an entering/alighting platform, and other subsidiary facilities such as a parking lot and so on installed therein or a separate building. Further, the terminals have a drawback that an installation area thereof becomes large as much as a trace of a semicircle required for the U-turn of the vehicle and thus the size of the terminals is large. This causes installation intervals between the terminals far away from each other, which renders a walking distance of the passengers extendable.

[Technical Solution]

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and it is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a flat terminal for a guideway transit system capable of preventing transit of vehicles and passengers from overlapping by changing a U-turn structure of a vehicle direction turning structure to a simple divisional rotation structure.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a flat terminal for a guideway transit system capable of installing a gateway and an entering/alighting platform at the interior or exterior part of a building by remarkably reducing the size of the terminal while using a single-story flat terminal structure, rather than a two-story terminal structure.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a flat terminal for a guideway transit system capable of improving access convenience to a user and also readily installing the terminal by installing a small size of terminals at various places in a distributed manner instead of a large terminal for entering or alighting of numerous vehicles required for a high frequency service.

To achieve the above objects, there is provided a flat terminal for a guideway transit system of the present invention comprising: a gateway connected to a terminated end of a guideway through which a vehicle moves, and through which the vehicle is driven in and out to enter/alight passengers; entering/alighting platforms at which the vehicle stops to enter/alight the passengers or freights; and terminal subsidiary facilities such as a control room, a waiting room, a parking lot and so on, which are provided on the same plane as the entering/alighting platform at both sides thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The above objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGS. 1 to 5 are embodiments of a flat terminal for a guideway transit system having a T-shaped structure in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of terminal positions in the guideway, a guide track of which is a double track;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the guide track, a structure of which is a single track, a vehicle being driven in and out on the same track;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the terminal, right and left entering/alighting platforms of which are installed at different buildings, respectively;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the terminal where each of the right and left entering/alighting platforms has a plurality of entering/alighting positions disposed in serial;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of the terminal where each of the right and left entering/alighting platforms has a plurality of entering/alighting positions disposed in parallel;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of the terminal having a “|-” shaped structure;

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of an interior part of a building including a gateway, and an entering/alighting platform corresponding to the gateway and having a waiting room;

FIG. 8 is a schematic view of the terminal provided with a standby section for controlling the number of vehicles driven in and out through an external guideway connected to the gateway;

FIG. 9 is a schematic view of the terminal having an external passage installed at a predetermined position of the gateway; and

FIG. 10 is a schematic view of a track-type entering/alighting platform including a single track of guideway and gateway capable of entering and alighting passengers through a small terminal and passageway having a single entering/alighting platform.

MODE FOR INVENTION

Although the present invention will now be described through preferred embodiments of a terminal for a guideway transit with reference to the accompanying drawings, the present invention is not limited to those embodiments.

A flat terminal for a guideway transit system in accordance with the present invention comprises a gateway 24 connected to a guideway 20 having a guide track 22 for guiding a movement of a vehicle 10 and through which the vehicle is driven in and out for entering/alighting; an entering/alighting platform 30 at which the vehicle moved along the guide track 22 of the gateway 24 is stopped to enter and alight passengers or freights; a waiting room 42 provided on a plane of the same story as the gateway 24 with respect to the entering/alighting platform 30. In the present invention, the guide track 22 functions to guide a movement of the vehicle 10 so that the vehicle 10 moves along the guide track 22 of the guideway 20.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be separately described according to structural differences of the gateway 24.

EMBODIMENT 1

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 5, the flat terminal for a guideway transit system having a T-shaped gateway 24 in accordance with the present invention is characterized that the gateway 24 is provided at a terminated end of the guideway 20 and the entering/alighting platform 30 is installed apart from left and right sides by a certain distance with respect to a progression direction of the vehicle 10. The gateway 24 is configured such that the vehicle 10 is driven into the left entering/alighting platform 30 from the guide track 22 of the guideway 20 by rotating about 90° leftward, goes back from the left entering/alighting platform 30 toward the right entering/alighting platform 30, and then driven out to the guideway by rotating about 90° rightward from the right entering/alighting platform 30.

The flat terminal includes the gateway 24 formed at the terminated end of a branch guideway (hereinafter, referred to as “guideway”) 20 branched off from a main lane guideway 23 of the guideway transit system. As shown in FIG. 1, the gateway 24 is disposed between the guideway 20 and the entering/alighting platform 30 and has a shape that the guideway 20 extended to the entering/alighting platform 30 is terminated.

Such T-shaped structure enables the vehicle 10 stopped at the entering/alighting platform 30 through the gateway 24 to go back after entering/alighting passengers 12 at the entering/alighting platform 30 or without passengers' entering/alighting, move to the rear entering/alighting platform 30 to enter and alight the passengers, and then drive back onto the guideway 20 so that a moving line of the vehicle does not overlap that of the passengers 12 within the waiting room 42. Accordingly, it is possible to manufacture a flat structure terminal and also considerably reduce the size of the terminal, differently from a conventional two-story structure terminal.

Although the conventional terminal has a structure that the vehicle 10 changes its direction by 180° while passing through a U-turn section, the vehicle 10 of the present invention can smoothly change its progression direction in a narrow space because it turns 90° leftward before stopping and again turns about 90° leftward upon also a departure after going back.

The entering/alighting platform 30 corresponds to the terminated end of the gateway 24 and is formed at an external wall 40 a of the waiting room 42 of the building 40 so that the passengers 12 enter in and alight from the vehicle 10 after the vehicle is stopped at the exterior of the building 40. The waiting room 42 and the gateway 24 are arranged at the interior and exterior of the building 40 via the medium of the entering/alighting platform 30 so that the passengers can horizontally move between the waiting room 42 and the entering/alighting platform 30. Further, subsidiary facilities such as a control room 43 and a ticket gate (not shown) are prepared at places adjacent to the entering/alighting platform 30 in the building 40, together with the waiting room 42. With this arrangement, the passengers 12 can buy and examine tickets suitable to the destination, stand by in the waiting room 42, and then ride in the vehicle 10, or pass through the waiting room 42 after alighting from the vehicle 10. A reference numeral 46 that is not described designates a stairway.

Meanwhile, FIGS. 1, 3, 4 and 5 illustrate the guideway 20 that includes the guide track 22 having a double track structure that the vehicle can be driven into and out from the gateway 24 along different lines, and FIG. 2 illustrates a single track structure that the vehicle can be driven into and out from the gateway 24 along the same single line. FIG. 3 illustrates that the right and left entering/alighting platforms 30 are installed at different buildings 40, respectively, FIG. 4 illustrates that each of the entering/alighting platforms 30 has a plurality of entering/alighting positions disposed in serial, and FIG. 5 illustrates that each of the entering/alighting platforms 30 has a plurality of entering/alighting positions disposed in parallel.

Therefore, it is possible to construct a large scale of terminal capable of accommodating numerous passengers by additionally installing the flat terminal in serial or parallel.

EMBODIMENT 2

FIG. 6 illustrates the gateway 24 having a “|-” shaped structure and provided at the terminated end of the guideway 20. The gateway 24 is configured in such a manner that the vehicle 10 is straightly driven into the entering/alighting platform 30 and moves into a right entering/alighting platform 30 by turning about 90° backward, and then driven into the guideway 20 by again turning about 90° from the right entering/alighting platform 30.

Meanwhile, FIGS. 1 to 4, and 6 illustrate that the entering/alighting platform 30 is installed at a predetermined wall 40 a of a building 40 including a waiting room 42, and the corresponding gateway 24 is disposed at the exterior of the building 40 of the waiting room 42; and on the contrary, FIGS. 5 and 7 to 9 illustrate that the entering/alighting platform 30 and the corresponding gateway 24 are installed within the building 40 including the waiting room 42.

The terminal shown in FIG. 8 is configured to include a departure standby section 25 and an arrival standby section 26 for controlling the number of the driven in and out vehicles 10 between the gateway 24 and an exterior part of the guideway 20.

FIG. 9 illustrates that the gateway 24 adjacent to the entering/alighting platform 30 includes, at a predetermined part thereof, an external passage 27 connected to a parking lot 44 adjacent to the waiting room 42, or a general road (not shown) at the exterior of the parking lot 44.

In this arrangement, the guideway vehicle 10 can be driven along the external passage 27, or a private car or a taxi that allows the guideway transit service by including an additional device required for such service, i.e., a dual-mode vehicle (not shown) can be driven between the general road and the guideway 20.

The dual-mode vehicle is referred to as a vehicle that can move along the guideway as well as the general road according to a driver's intention, as in a conventional wheel vehicle.

As described above, it is possible to construct the flat terminal having the external passage 27 through which the guideway vehicle 10 can park and the dual-mode vehicle can pass.

EMBODIMENT 3

FIG. 10 illustrates a flat terminal for a guideway transit system of a small terminal structure that can be applied to a terminated end section of the guideway having a small traffic amount, the terminal including a guideway 20 and a gateway 24 that consist of a single track, a single entering/alighting platform 30 corresponding to the single track, a guide track 22 connected to a parking lot 44 adjacent to a waiting room 42, and a direction change lane 28 provided in the parking lot 44. Therefore, it is possible to construct an ultra-small terminal having the single entering/alighting platform 30 and the direction change lane 28 in the terminated end section having a small traffic amount composed of a single track.

Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 10, in relation to the small terminal, it may be possible to configure a guideway terminal including a passenger passageway 29 connected to the building 40 having the waiting room 42 at a predetermined section of the guideway 20, and a guideway entering/alighting platform 30 capable of entering/alighting passengers into/from the vehicle 10 stopped at the predetermined section of the guideway 20 through the passenger passageway 29. In addition, it may be also possible to compose the terminal where the entering/alighting platform 30 and the corresponding gateway 24 can be installed at a position that is apart from the building 40 including the waiting room 42 by a fixed distance using the passenger passageway 29.

Hereinafter, operations of the flat terminal for a guideway transit system in accordance with the embodiments of the present invention as constructed above will be described.

The flat terminal for a guideway transit system in accordance with the present invention is implemented in such a way that the vehicles 10 very frequently serviced at a high speed along the main lain guideway 23 having a high straightness may be branched off and driven into the numerous branch guideways 20 at a reduced speed, if necessary, to stop and enter/alight passengers at the numerous terminals connected to the terminated end or the predetermined section of the guideway 20. As a result, the passengers 12 can move to a desired destination through the terminals.

In addition, the vehicle 10 driven at high speed in the main lane guideway 23 is branched off and driven into the (branch) guideway 20 at a reduced speed to arrive at the gateway 24 of the destination terminal, i.e., the terminated end of the guideway 20. At this time, when the entering/alighting platform 30 is empty, the vehicle 10 progresses to the empty entering/alighting platform 30 to stop and enter/alight passengers 12 or freights. On the other hand, when the entering/alighting platform 30 is not empty, the vehicle 10 stands by at the arrival standby section 26. When the entering/alighting platform is empty after the standby, the vehicle 10 can progress to the entering/alighting platform 30. In this configuration, the gateway 24 provides a stop position at which the vehicles 10 should be stopped.

In the case of the gateway 24 having the T-shaped structure, the vehicle 10 progressed into the entering/alighting platform 30 is stopped at the corresponding entering/alighting platform 30, and thereafter, the vehicle 10 goes back to the rear entering/alighting platform 30 after entering/alighting the passengers 12 or freights, or without entering/alighting. And then, the vehicle 10 is again driven into the guideway 20 by turning its direction after entering/alighting the passengers or freights at also the rear entering/alighting platform 30, or immediately without entering/alighting.

Further, in the case of the guideway vehicle 10 or the dual-mode vehicle almost similar to a private vehicle, the vehicle may be driven out to the parking lot 44 through the external passage 27, and the vehicle 10 in the parking lot may be driven into the guideway 20. Furthermore, in the case of the dual-mode vehicle, the vehicle can be driven into the guideway from the external general road through the external passage 29 of the terminal, and conversely driven out to the general road.

In addition, the passengers 12 can horizontally move into the buildings 40 such as the waiting room 42 through the entering/alighting platform 30 at the same plane of the vehicle 10, which do not overlap the movement of the vehicle 10 and can enter/alight through the entering/alighting platform 30 installed at the wall 40 a of the building 40. Especially, since the small terminals can be installed in a distributed manner, it is possible to install the terminals at all required positions and render a walking distance of users for the guideway transit system (vehicle) short.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

According to the flat terminal for a guideway transit system of the present invention, since the guideway of the vehicle do not overlap the passageway of passengers, the two-story structure terminal is installed at the same plane, and thus, the size of the terminal can be reduced.

In addition, it is possible to reduce the size of the terminal since the vehicle can dividedly rotated in a narrow space.

And also, since installation of the small terminal is available, it is possible to install the terminal at the exterior of a building and also install the terminal at all buildings needing installation thereof, thereby improving access convenience of passengers remarkably as well as reducing construction cost considerably.

Further, it is possible to use a parking lot through an external passage and allow a dual-mode vehicle to use the guideway. And also, it is possible to install the terminal in harmonization with a capacity from a minimum scale to a large scale in a multi-stage installation manner, and also adjust the size of the terminal conveniently if necessary.

Moreover, while stations of other guideway transit system such as a general subway or a light-rail transit should be always operated continuously during the transit service of the vehicle, the terminal of the present invention does not need to operate when there is no passenger. Therefore, small terminals having only several entering/alighting platforms can be constructed with low cost to obtain a variety of destinations, thereby improving usability of the guideway transit system and also increasing the number of passengers accordingly.

While the present invention has been described with reference to the particular illustrative embodiments, it is not to be restricted by the embodiments but only by the appended claims. It is to be appreciated that those skilled in the art can change or modify the embodiments without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention. 

1-12. (canceled)
 13. A terminal for a guideway transit system comprising; a gateway (24) provided at a terminated end of a guideway (20) through which a vehicle (10) moves, and through which the vehicle (10) is driven into and out to enter/alight passengers; and entering/alighting platforms (30) at which the vehicle moves from the gateway (24) and stops to enter/alight the passengers or freights; characterized in that the terminal comprises a waiting room (42) provided on the same plane as the gateway (24) with respect to the entering/alighting platforms (30) so that a moving line of the vehicle does not overlap a moving line of the passengers, and the entering/alighting platforms (30) are installed apart from both sides by a preset distance with respect to a progression direction of the vehicle (10) respectively, and the gateway (24) is configured in such a way that the vehicle (10) is driven into the left entering/alighting platform (30) by rotating about 90° leftward, going back from the left entering/alighting platform (30) toward the right entering/alighting platform (30), and then driven out to the guideway(20) by dividedly rotating about 900 lefrward again from the right entering/alighting platform (30).
 14. The terminal according to claim 13, wherein the left and right entering/alighting platforms (30) are installed at different buildings 40, respectively.
 15. The terminal according to claim 13, wherein each of the left and right entering/alighting platforms (30) comprises a plurality of entering/alighting positions arranged in serial.
 16. The terminal according to claim 13, wherein each of the left and right entering/alighting platforms (30) comprises a plurality of entering/alighting positions arranged in parallel.
 17. A terminal for a guideway transit system comprising; a gateway (24) provided at a terminated end of a guideway (20) through which a vehicle (10) moves, and through which the vehicle (10) is driven into and out to enter/alight passengers; and entering/alighting platforms (30) at which the vehicle moves from the gateway (24) and stops to enter/alight the passengers or freights; characterized in that the terminal comprises a waiting room (42) provided on the same plane as the gateway (24) with respect to the entering/alighting platforms (30) so that a moving line of the vehicle does not overlap a moving line of the passengers, and the entering/alighting platforms (30) are configured such that the vehicle (10) is straightly driven into the entering/alighting platforms (30), moved into a right entering/alighting platform (30) by turning about 90° backward, and then driven into the guideway (20) by turning about 90° forward from the right entering/alighting platform (30).
 18. The terminal according to claim 13, wherein the entering/alighting platform (30) are installed at a predetermined wall (40 a) of a building (40) including a waiting room (42), and the gateway (24) and the entering/alighting platforms (30) are disposed at the exterior of the building (40) including the waiting room (42).
 19. The terminal according to claim 13, wherein the entering/alighting platforms (30) and the gateway (24) corresponding to the entering/alighting platforms (30) are installed within the building (40) including the waiting room (42).
 20. The terminal according to claim 13, further comprising a departure standby section (25) and an arrival standby section (26) provided at an exterior part of the guideway (20) connected to the gateway (24), for controlling the number of the vehicles (10) driven in and out between the gateway (24) and the exterior part of the guideway (20).
 21. The terminal according to claim 13, further comprising an external passage (27) installed at a predetermined part of the gateway (24) adjacent to the entering/alighting platforms (30) in order to connect to a parking lot (44) inside the building 40 or a general road at the exterior of the parking lot (44).
 22. The terminal according to claim 13, wherein the entering/alighting platforms (30) and the gateway (24) corresponding to the entering/alighting platforms (30) are installed at the exterior of the building (40) including the waiting room (42), and the entering/alighting platforms (30) include a guideway type entering/alighting platform (30) capable of entering/alighting the passengers into/from the vehicle 10 stopped at a predetermined section of the middle of the guideway (20), together with the terminated end.
 23. The terminal according to claim 18, wherein the entering/alighting platforms (30) and the gateway (24) corresponding to the entering/alighting platforms (30) are installed apart from the building (40) including the waiting room (42) by a predetermined distance.
 24. The terminal according to claim 14, wherein the entering/alighting platform (30) are installed at a predetermined wall (40 a) of a building (40) including a waiting room (42), and the gateway (24) and the entering/alighting platforms (30) are disposed at the exterior of the building (40) including the waiting room (42).
 25. The terminal according to claim 15, wherein the entering/alighting platforms (30) and the gateway (24) corresponding to the entering/alighting platforms (30) are installed within the building (40) including the waiting room (42).
 26. The terminal according to claim 14, further comprising an external passage (27) installed at a predetermined part of the gateway (24) adjacent to the entering/alighting platforms (30) in order to connect to a parking lot (44) inside the building 40 or a general road at the exterior of the parking lot (44).
 27. The terminal according to claim 14, wherein the entering/alighting platforms (30) and the gateway (24) corresponding to the entering/alighting platforms (30) are installed at the exterior of the building (40) including the waiting room (42), and the entering/alighting platforms (30) include a guideway type entering/alighting platform (30) capable of entering/alighting the passengers into/from the vehicle 10 stopped at a predetermined section of the middle of the guideway (20), together with the terminated end. 